Integrated Reaction and Separation Systems

Many industrially important chemical reactions are limited by the equilibrium conversion of reactants within a feed and product mix. For most chemical processes, the effluent from the reactor is separated into unconverted reactants, by-products and products. The unconverted feed is usually recycled, and the products and by-products are separated for meeting requisite specifications. Process Intensification (PI) through integrated reaction and separation, presents one of the most important trends in today’s process technology. It consists in the development of innovative processes that offer drastic improvements in chemical manufacturing and processing, substantially decreasing equipment volume, energy consumption, or waste formation, and ultimately leading to cheaper, safer, sustainable technologies. This combining of the reaction and separation steps in a single unit operation known as reactive separation process (RSP) or integrated reactive separation (IRS) and the process unit is called a multifunctional reactor. The potential advantages of process integration are:

Integrated Design, Optimization and Control

The emphasis in industry on energy savings, sustainable processes and environmental protection has driven process systems engineers, including design and operations engineers, to incorporate a number of crucial steps in developing integrated designs of chemical processes. Design teams are required to integrate the process with control to satisfy economical, environmental and social objectives, while at the same time achieving optimal performance.

Past Research

The purpose of my thesis was to investigate the enhancement of reactive systems using multifunctional reactors. The catalytic separative configurations with optimization of operating conditions were explored in such systems. Fixed-bed columns containing solid catalysts and adsorbents were employed for simultaneous reaction and separation. Theoretical and experimental evaluations of packed-bed adsorptive reactors with and without pressure swing (PSR) effect were been carried out in order to gain conceptual understanding of how the layering of the catalyst and adsorbent within a bed would affect the separation enhanced reaction. Three different reaction schemes were considered: metathesis of propene, dehydrogenation of 1-butene, and steam reforming of methane (SMR). The former reactions represent a single limited-equilibrium reaction case in which the kinetics and thermodynamics of the reaction enables operation at mild condition such as ambient. The product of interest (ethene) could be recovered in the high-pressure reaction/adsorption stream by removing 2-butene and propene.

Current Research

Reaction kinetics and the mechanisms and thermochemistry

Due to the deficiency of research funding and inadequate research resources in Jordan, I couldn't add much to my basic research of interest. So, I have joined my department colleague's interests in the fields of reaction kinetics and the mechanisms and thermochemistry of species. We had made significant contributions to the understanding of the formation and destruction of highly toxic pollutants from thermal processes, low-temperature oxidation of hydrocarbons and behaviour of nitrogen content in fuels.

Solar Desalination

Energy and water are both essential for sustainable development in all sectors. Jordan and most of the Middle East countries are facing serious challenges in terms of limited resources of energy and fresh water. Jordan imports of about 98% of its energy need which accounts for 13% of the GDP in 2009. Ma’an city has favourable geographic and climatic conditions that allow the development of the major national productive projects utilizing renewable energy sources. This is indicated by a number of imported renewable energy technologies (solar and wind) being constructed in Ma’an and other cities in Jordan. My recent research works were focusing on theoretical and experimental investigation of availability of solar radiation in Ma'an region, Jordan (Latitude: 31 N, Longitude: 36 E). A mathematical model was developed and designed to investigate variations of the received solar radiation on horizontal and inclined surfaces of solar stills with different orientations. In addition, a solar desalination model was developed and integrated with the solar radiation model. The output of the validated solar radiation model was used as an input to the solar desalination model. The integrated model was used to investigate the effect of geometrical and operational parameters on the performance of single slope, double slope and pyramidal solar stills. Model simulations were validated against experimental measurements and, then, the optimum settings for the enhanced performance were obtained.

Saleh Rawadieh and Gomes, V. G. “Multiobjective Multifunctional Reactor for Steam Reforming” 37th Australasian Chem Eng Conference, 27-30 September, 2009. Perth, Australia.